Conversion stats - Revision history

Olin Bose at 18:00, 19 November 2025

2025-11-19T18:00:04Z

Ophir Lifshitz: lonlks

2021-04-26T00:30:41Z

lonlks

Ophir Lifshitz: /* List of known tournaments before 2017 with conversion stats (not automated) */ is relevant to before 2017

2021-04-26T00:27:09Z

List of known tournaments before 2017 with conversion stats (not automated): is relevant to before 2017

Jonah Greenthal: /* Automation */ then-JV coach Ben Yang created the first ways to do that, which were via increasingly complicated Excel sheets

2021-04-25T22:07:19Z

Automation: then-JV coach Ben Yang created the first ways to do that, which were via increasingly complicated Excel sheets

Ophir Lifshitz: /* List of known tournaments before 2017 with conversion stats (not automated) */ oofoo

2021-04-25T07:06:13Z

List of known tournaments before 2017 with conversion stats (not automated): oofoo

Ophir Lifshitz: care

2021-04-25T07:00:48Z

care

Ophir Lifshitz: wahever

2021-04-25T06:29:05Z

wahever

New page

{{confuse|[[Conversion metrics]]}}
'''Conversion stats''' (or '''conversion statistics''' or '''conversion data''') measure the [[conversion]] of individual questions or categories
(sometimes called '''category stats''' or '''cat stats''').
Conversion stats require tabulating entire scoresheets,
which involves more fine-grained data than [[conventional stats]] (which only records summary data for each game – player [[statline]]s and final team scores),
but less than [[detailed stats]] (which records much more data than is possible on a conventional paper scoresheet).

Until 2016, only a small number of tournaments had created conversion stats, usually via the tedious task of transcribing [[scoresheet]]s row-by-row.
Purpose-built [[electronic scoresheets]] can allow creating conversion stats automatically.

==Assessment==
Conversion stats can offer decent insight into how questions and teams play.
For example, conversion stats can show which questions had a higher rate of [[power]]s or [[neg]]s,
or how much consistency or variance in difficulty exists across bonuses.
It can also show which categories a team is strong or weak at.

However, conversion stats frequently suffer from low sample sizes, which contributes to misleading or [[misuse of stats]].
Conversion stats also don't tell you anything about how interested or frustrated players felt about a question.

Publishing conversion stats for [[unclear]] sets is a major responsibility and [[question security]] issue.
It gives an unfair advantage to teams who play in later mirrors,
it rewards many undesirable ways of [[metagaming]], and can cause unintended [[psychological]] consequences.

==History==
Not much information is known about the first instances of conversion stats.
They were likely to have been novelties created by one person dedicated to manually entering around 10,000 numbers into Excel
(which involves on the order of 100 paper scoresheets, each containing 50–100 pieces of data).

Because large national tournaments use several thousand paper scoresheets,
painstakingly creating conversion stats for them is beyond the practical scope of a single human's patience.

===List of known tournaments before 2017 with conversion stats (not automated)===
This table includes mainstream tournaments with published conversion stats only; [[side event]]s and others are mentioned below the table.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="90" | Date
! width="130"| Tournament
! width="169"| Tournament type
! width="160"| Created by
! width="160"| Tabulated using
! width="190"| Types of data
! width="120"| Scope of data
! width="180"| Status
|-
| Oct 26, 2007
| [[EFT 2]]
| College, housewrite
| [[Dennis Jang]]
| Excel, unknown
| Unknown, bonus parts
| 90 scoresheets, 1 site (10 rooms × 9 rounds)
| Published in [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4601 thread], mentioned<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=60487#p60487</ref><ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=95022#p95022</ref><ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=104193#p104193</ref>, [[Link rot|dead]] since 2010
|-
| Jul 21, 2014
| [[2014 PACE NSC]]
| High school, championship
| [[Fred Morlan]]
| Excel, manual
| PACE format (steals conflated), no bonus parts
| 96 scoresheets, 1 site (48 rooms × 2 rounds)
| Cited in [https://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=16134 thread], unfinished
|-
| Jul 28, 2014
| [[2014 Chicago Open]]
| [[Open]], [[packet submission]]
| [[Andrew Hart]] and [[Kay Li]]?
| Google Sheets, manual
| Conversion outcome only, no bonus parts; bonus categories
| 105 scoresheets, 1 site (7 rooms × 15 rounds)
| Published in [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=16159 thread], live
|-
| Jul 28, 2015
| [[2015 Chicago Open]]
| [[Open]], [[packet submission]]
| [[Jerry Vinokurov]]
| Google Sheets, manual
| Conversion outcome only, no bonus parts
| 136 scoresheets, 1 site (8 rooms × 17 rounds)
| Published in [https://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=17638 thread], live
|-
| Jul 30, 2016
| [[2016 Chicago Open]]
| [[Open]], [[packet submission]]
| [[Tejas Raje]]
| Google Sheets, manual
| No bonus parts; (sub)categories, teams, players
| 140 scoresheets, 1 site (9 rooms × 10 rounds + 5 × 2 × 2 + 10 × 3)
| Published in [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=319287#p319287 thread], live
|}

In May 2010, [[Charlie Dees]] cites several dozen answerlines with low conversion from an [[HSAPQ]] tournament.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=186099#p186099</ref>
Since 2012, announcements for [[SCOP]] Novice and MS offer a small discount per attending team to tournament directors who send the raw scoresheets to the editors.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13243&hilit=conversion+statistics</ref>
In March 2014, [[Marianna Zhang]] mentions the existence of conversion stats for the high school housewrite [[Prison Bowl|Prison Bowl VII]].<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=278529#p278529</ref><ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=265568#p265568</ref>
In March 2015, [[Ben Smith]] posted a comparison of conversion stats for the extra [[Canadian]] questions at the [[ONQBA]] Provincial Championship.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=299309#p299309</ref>
Further information about all of the above is unknown.

[[NAQT]] collects proprietary conversion stats from some of its tournaments,
including national championships like [[HSNCT]] and [[ICT]], and some mirrors of [[SCT]] and [[IS]] sets.
Perhaps an estimated 100,000 scoresheets have cumulatively been transcribed since around 2005
by people whom NAQT has hired to do such manual data entry during the summer.
Representatives of NAQT may post selected conversion information upon request,<ref>
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5354&p=78842&hilit=conversion+statistics#p78842]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=97328#p97328]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=104673#p104673]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10122]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=218844#p218844]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=220704#p220704]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=15986]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17602]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=348593#p348593]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=360252#p360252]
</ref>
or at their discretion,<ref>
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=157577#p157577]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=215298#p215298]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=231597#p231597]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=243406#p243406]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=244124#p244124]
</ref>
but NAQT policy is to not publish its conversion stats in full.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=306008#p306008 etc.</ref>

In May 2016, [[Eddie Kim]] tabulated conversion stats for the audio-tossup-only music side event [[Imaginary Landscape]] No. 3,
which was mirrored at HSNCT (up to 4 rooms × 8 rounds) and NSC (up to 3 rooms × 8 rounds).
<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=318027#p318027</ref>
Buzz times, measured in elapsed seconds, were also collected (in a form of [[detailed stats]]).

[[Andrew Hart]] published conversion stats for 2016 [[Chicago Open Trash]] (10 rooms × 12 rounds)<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=18849</ref>
and 2018 CO Trash (12 rooms × 11 rounds).<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=286&t=21530</ref>
As of 2021, the discussion threads for these stats have still generated more engagement than most other conversion stats or detailed stats, combined.

Beginning in 2017, [[Jacob O'Rourke]] published limited conversion stats for some sites of [[WHAQ]], [[CAST]], [[LOGIC]], [[CALISTO]], and [[MWT]].<ref>
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=331580#p331580]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=357726#p357726]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=370143#p370143]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=379083#p379083]
[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=369445#p369445]
</ref>

===Automation===

Since November 2008, the tossup-only high school singles tournament [[Scobol Solo]] has tracked some conversion stats via software created by [[Jonah Greenthal]].<ref>https://www.scobolsolo.com/stats/conversion-by-question.jsp?object=2008</ref>
It has also tracked limited [[detailed stats]] since November 2016.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=322675#p322675</ref>

Even though [[electronic scoresheets]] have existed for many years, most of them did nothing with the [[low-hanging fruit]].
More recently, some electronic scoresheets may automatically tabulate conversion stats.

The April 2016 tossup-only science side event [[AVOGADROS NUMBER]] used Google Sheets to collect conversion stats.
Raw normalized data, standings, and aggregate stats by team, player, category, and author were published (4 rooms × 5 rounds + 5 rooms × 3 rounds).<ref>https://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18515&p=326194#p314805</ref>

==References==
<references/>

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:00, 19 November 2025
Line 154:		Line 154:
	==References==		==References==
	<references/>		<references/>
		+	{{c\|Statistics}}

@@ Line 130: / Line 130: @@
 As of 2021, the discussion threads for these stats have still generated more active engagement than most other conversion stats or detailed stats, combined.
-Beginning in 2017, [[Jacob O'Rourke]] published limited conversion stats for some sites of [[WHAQ]] (102 scoresheets), [[CAST]], [[LOGIC]], [[CALISTO]], and [[MWT]].<ref>
+Beginning in 2016 or 2017, [[Jacob O'Rourke]] published limited conversion stats for some sites of [[WHAQ]] (102 scoresheets), [[CAST]], [[LOGIC]], [[CALISTO]], and [[MWT]].<ref>
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=331580#p331580]
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=357726#p357726]

@@ Line 91: / Line 91: @@
 In May 2010, [[Charlie Dees]] cited several dozen answerlines with low conversion from an [[HSAPQ]] tournament.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=186099#p186099</ref>
-Since 2012, announcements for [[SCOP]] Novice and MS offer a small discount per attending team to tournament directors who send the raw scoresheets to the editors.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13243&hilit=conversion+statistics</ref>
+Since 2012, announcements for [[SCOP]] Novice and MS offer a small discount per attending team to tournament directors who send the raw scoresheets to the editors for the purpose of creating conversion stats.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13243&hilit=conversion+statistics</ref>
 In March 2014, [[Marianna Zhang]] mentioned the existence of conversion stats for the high school housewrite [[Prison Bowl|Prison Bowl VII]].<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=278529#p278529</ref><ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=265568#p265568</ref>
 In March 2015, [[Ben Smith]] posted a comparison of conversion stats for the extra [[Canadian]] questions added to an IS set used at the [[ONQBA]] Provincial Championship.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=299309#p299309</ref>

@@ Line 107: / Line 107: @@
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=218844#p218844]
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=220704#p220704]
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=15986]
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17602]
@@ Line 119: / Line 120: @@
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=244124#p244124]
 </ref>
-but NAQT policy is to not publish its conversion stats in full.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=306008#p306008 etc.</ref>
+but NAQT policy is to not publish its conversion stats in full.<ref>
 In May 2016, [[Eddie Kim]] tabulated conversion stats for the audio-tossup-only music side event [[Imaginary Landscape]] No. 3,

@@ Line 140: / Line 140: @@
 ===Automation===
-Since November 2008, the tossup-only high school singles tournament [[Scobol Solo]] has tracked some conversion stats via software created by [[Jonah Greenthal]].<ref>https://www.scobolsolo.com/stats/conversion-by-question.jsp?object=2008</ref>
+Since about 2008, the tossup-only high school singles tournament [[Scobol Solo]] has tracked some conversion stats via software created by [[Ben Yang]] and [[Jonah Greenthal]].<ref>https://www.scobolsolo.com/stats/conversion-by-question.jsp?object=2008</ref>
 It has also tracked limited [[detailed stats]] since November 2016.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=322675#p322675</ref>

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 '''Conversion stats''' (or '''conversion statistics''' or '''conversion data''') measure the [[conversion]] of individual questions or categories
 (sometimes called '''category stats''' or '''cat stats''').
-Conversion stats require tabulating entire scoresheets,
+Conversion stats require tabulating entire [[scoresheet]]s,
 which involves more fine-grained data than [[conventional stats]] (which only records summary data for each game – player [[statline]]s and final team scores),
 but less than [[detailed stats]] (which records much more data than is possible on a conventional paper scoresheet).
-Until 2016, only a small number of tournaments had created conversion stats, usually via the tedious task of transcribing [[scoresheet]]s row-by-row.
+Until 2016, only a small number of tournaments had created conversion stats, usually via the tedious task of transcribing scoresheets row-by-row.
 Purpose-built [[electronic scoresheets]] can allow creating conversion stats automatically.
@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 |}
-In May 2010, [[Charlie Dees]] cites several dozen answerlines with low conversion from an [[HSAPQ]] tournament.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=186099#p186099</ref>
+In May 2010, [[Charlie Dees]] cited several dozen answerlines with low conversion from an [[HSAPQ]] tournament.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=186099#p186099</ref>
 Since 2012, announcements for [[SCOP]] Novice and MS offer a small discount per attending team to tournament directors who send the raw scoresheets to the editors.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13243&hilit=conversion+statistics</ref>
-In March 2014, [[Marianna Zhang]] mentions the existence of conversion stats for the high school housewrite [[Prison Bowl|Prison Bowl VII]].<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=278529#p278529</ref><ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=265568#p265568</ref>
+In March 2014, [[Marianna Zhang]] mentioned the existence of conversion stats for the high school housewrite [[Prison Bowl|Prison Bowl VII]].<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=278529#p278529</ref><ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=265568#p265568</ref>
-In March 2015, [[Ben Smith]] posted a comparison of conversion stats for the extra [[Canadian]] questions at the [[ONQBA]] Provincial Championship.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=299309#p299309</ref>
+In March 2015, [[Ben Smith]] posted a comparison of conversion stats for the extra [[Canadian]] questions added to an IS set used at the [[ONQBA]] Provincial Championship.<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=299309#p299309</ref>
 Further information about all of the above is unknown.
@@ Line 128: / Line 128: @@
 [[Andrew Hart]] published conversion stats for 2016 [[Chicago Open Trash]] (10 rooms × 12 rounds)<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=18849</ref>
 and 2018 CO Trash (12 rooms × 11 rounds).<ref>https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=286&t=21530</ref>
-As of 2021, the discussion threads for these stats have still generated more engagement than most other conversion stats or detailed stats, combined.
+As of 2021, the discussion threads for these stats have still generated more active engagement than most other conversion stats or detailed stats, combined.
-Beginning in 2017, [[Jacob O'Rourke]] published limited conversion stats for some sites of [[WHAQ]], [[CAST]], [[LOGIC]], [[CALISTO]], and [[MWT]].<ref>
+Beginning in 2017, [[Jacob O'Rourke]] published limited conversion stats for some sites of [[WHAQ]] (102 scoresheets), [[CAST]], [[LOGIC]], [[CALISTO]], and [[MWT]].<ref>
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=331580#p331580]
 [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=357726#p357726]
@@ Line 146: / Line 146: @@
 More recently, some electronic scoresheets may automatically tabulate conversion stats.
-The April 2016 tossup-only science side event [[AVOGADROS NUMBER]] used Google Sheets to collect conversion stats.
+In April 2016, the tossup-only science side event [[AVOGADROS NUMBER]] used Google Sheets to collect conversion stats.
 Raw normalized data, standings, and aggregate stats by team, player, category, and author were published (4 rooms × 5 rounds + 5 rooms × 3 rounds).<ref>https://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18515&p=326194#p314805</ref>
 ==References==
 <references/>